Fintech 2026

BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Joan Carette, Philippe De Prez and Thomas Derval, Simont Braun

11. Open Banking 11.1 Regulation of Open Banking

ry regime as such; however, in line with the ESMA Q&A on the AIFMD, a fund investing in crypto-assets may qualify as an alternative investment fund (AIF) where it raises capital from a number of investors, invests in accordance with a defined investment policy, and operates for the benefit of those investors. In such cases, the fund and its manager would be subject to the AIFMD framework. 10.11 Virtual Currencies Virtual currencies have received many different defi - nitions in Belgium in recent years. They are generally not treated differently than other blockchain assets, unless they qualify as e-money tokens (EMTs) or asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) under MiCA, which are subject to a stricter regime than regular virtual currencies/crypto-assets. 10.12 NFTs In principle, NFTs and NFT platforms are subject to the same rules as any other crypto-related initiative. However, they are excluded from the scope of MiCA and from the FSMA Regulation of 5 January 2023. Depending on the characteristics and purposes of the NFTs or the structure and activities provided by the platforms, they could fall within the scope of certain other existing regulations (eg, through a qualification as investment instruments). 10.13 Stablecoins Stablecoins are regulated in Belgium not through a specific national regime but through MiCA, which imposes strict rules on authorisation, reserve back - ing and redemption at par. MiCA classifies stablecoins either as EMTs, pegging the stablecoin to a single offi - cial currency, or as ARTs, pegging the stablecoin to a basket of official currencies. MiCA imposes the obligation to hold a reserve of assets, legally segregated from the issuers’ estate, to cover the risks associated with the assets referenced by the stablecoin and the liquidity risks associated with the redemption rights of the holders. Issuers of stablecoins cannot grant any interest in relation to the stablecoin nor grant any interest in rela - tion to crypto-asset services related to the stablecoin.

The prudential rules of PSD2 were transposed in the PI & EMI Law, while the conduct-of-business rules were inserted in the CEL. The open banking aspect of PSD2 came into force in Belgium along with the EU Regulated Technical Standards 2018/389 of 27 November 2017 on Strong Customer Authentication (RTS SCA) in September 2019. Consequently, PSPs are required to allow third-party providers (TPPs) to access payment account, either through a dedicated interface (interface specific for TPPs) or through their customer interface. In June 2023, the European Commission proposed FIDA. The proposal is currently in trilogue negotiations between the Parliament, Council and Commission, with key discussions focusing on the scope of data sharing, implementation timelines, and safeguards for competition. Final adoption is expected in 2026, with phased implementation likely beginning in 2027 or later. If adopted, FIDA would force financial entities to share data relating to (almost) all financial services with other financial entities and a new type of service provider: financial information service providers. Effects of PSD2 on Open Banking As the PSD2 and the RTS SCA implementing open banking only impose limited requirements on the inter - face, without indicating how these results should be obtained and with no standardisation, PSPs are left to decide how to implement proper technical solutions – which leads to difficulties for both PSPs and TPPs. However, PSD2 has also fostered innovation as it has prompted incumbents to either innovate internally or enter into partnerships with new fintech players. In this way, open banking under PSD2 has opened up the field to new financial services providers and TPPs, such as account information service providers (AISPs) and payment initiation service providers (PISPs). In addition, new customer authentication methods have been developed or further implemented in existing applications following the RTS SCA, paving the way to a simpler and smoother user-friendly atmosphere in financial services offerings.

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